Watch us play How to Survive: Storm Warning Edition for Xbox One and Windows PC

Every weekend the Windows Central streams an Xbox One and/or Windows game or two on Twitch for 1-2 hours, and gives out free games to the cool people who join us during the stream. It's like a live podcast, only you also get to watch a game while chatting with our awesome readers and viewers!

Tonight at 8pm Central (9pm Eastern, 6pm Pacific, 2am GMT), we'll be playing How to Survive: Storm Warning Edition. Take the survival mechanics of State of Decay and mix them with a cooperative twin-stick shooter with a sense of humor and you get How to Survive. We want you guys there, chatting along. So we're giving out more than 20 codes for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Steam!

Update: The stream has ended. Continue reading for game impressions, contest winners, and the full video replay in YouTube format!

How to Survive: Storm Warning Edition

You play as one of three survivors who have become stranded on a zombie-infested island. Like the average person, they have little idea of how to handle the situation on their own. Luckily, an eccentric survival nut has created a "How to Survive" guide for just such an emergency. You'll hunt down the pages of the guide, which contains useful (and funny) words of advice.

How to Survive takes place from an overhead view and controls like a twin-stick shooter. But it's still a survival game like State of Decay. Your character has three basic needs: food, water, and sleep that must be met in order to stay alive and kicking. You'll have to hunt animals for food, gather water from wells, and find safe places to rest as you navigate the island's perils.

Besides exploring, foraging, and zombie killing, you'll also have to complete RPG-style quests for fellow survivors. Completing these quests, as well as fighting enemies and crafting unique objects, gains EXP for your character. Use it to purchase upgrades for a skill tree, personalizing your character while gaining useful benefits like a reduced need for sleep.

Best of all, How to Survive has that one major element that State of Decay lacks: cooperative multiplayer! Two players can team up on one system or online in order to face the zombie island together. Since each character has his or her own strengths and abilities, you'll be able to complement your partner and hopefully keep each other safe.

See how we fare with How to Survive's extremely challenging survival gamelay during tonight's stream, and you might even win a copy of your own!

The Contest

We'll be streaming How to Survive: Storm Warning Edition for 90 minutes tonight, starting at 8pm Central (9pm Eastern, 6pm Pacific, 2am GMT). During that time, we'll be giving out a total of 24 game codes:

-10 for Xbox One
-10 for PlayStation 4 (North American accounts only)
- 4 for Steam

To enter, just follow me at Twitch.tv/Eastxtwitch (making sure to enable email notifications!) and tune in during the stream. You can watch the stream right here in this post, but you need to actually participate in the stream chat to have a chance at winning. We'll deliver codes to the winners via Twitch message (PM) during the stream. No code begging!

I'll be available for a few minutes before and after the stream if you have any questions or just want to say hi. If you enjoy the stream, be sure to check our schedule and come back for more!

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